Tempo cuts 20% of shops

The provinces weep

Electrical retail chain Tempo has decided to shut around ten per cent of its shops in the UK as part of a company overhaul.

Seven shops have already closed their doors, with another two due to shut next month, leaving 43 stores. The move will affect around 120 staff.

Tempo, which sells anything from washing machines to computers, decided to shut its businesses that were either "not an economic store to run" or were outside Tempo's main geographical area of the M25, a representative said.

The closures were part of a "complete company review" following last year's appointment of Tempo CEO Ian Parsons.

According to Tempo, the move will allow money to be ploughed into the other shops. However, the representative was unable to elaborate. "I don't know specifically - we're currently looking at plans for reinvestment in the chain," she said.

The company said it was "aiming for as few redundancies as possible", and was trying to get staff to apply for other jobs within the group. Although this would presumably mean moving to a different part of the country in many cases. ®